Occupational Health Project

Additionally, Lok Swasthya’s health program also focuses on occupational health & safety for informal women workers. We are currently working on occupational health and safety for 6 groups of women workers engaged in the informal economy – kite workers and readymade garment workers (supported by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India), agricultural workers, waste pickers, embroidery workers and papad Workers (supported by the network Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising, WIEGO), in various parts of India, from September 2009 onwards.

The objective of the 2 occupational health projects is to provide appropriate equipment (prototypes) and preventive health education to address the occupational risks of women workers in the informal economy. Lok Swasthya has collaborated with 2 design institutes, National Institute of Design, NID (Ahmedabad) and Institute of Technology, MIT (Pune) for the designing and developing of prototypes. The prototypes (affordable and necessary equipments) are developed to address the workers occupational health problems and increase their work efficiency and productivity. A needs assessment was conducted for each of the worker groups through group meetings with the workers, visiting individual workers at their work place (which is their homes) and observing the worker and the surroundings while she is working. The main findings of the needs assessment is used to conceptualize and design the prototype which is then field tested before finalization. Preventive health education is also being conducted through education on primary health care, reproductive health and medical camps, specifically eyes camps and general camp.